The pastor plants—the preacher uproots.

The pastor teaches—the preacher preaches.

The pastor mends—the preacher breaks.

The pastor is full of hope—the preacher is full of fire.

The pastor loves to listen—the preacher needs to speak.

The pastor sees the good in others—the preacher sees the depravity in man.

The pastor desires to be among the people—the preacher desires to be alone with God.

As the famous Puritan Richard Baxter said, “I preach as a dying man to dying men”…as a dying man to a dying nation.

America cannot fall … because she has already fallen. Her moral heartbeat has stopped; she needs resuscitation, renewal, and revival. THE TITANIC HAS BEEN STRUCK!

Leonard Ravenhill, paraphrase from Why Revival Tarries, “God has always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown of the nation and the church. Such men were Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi, and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke, and exhort in the name of God and righteousness. Such a man is likely to be drastic and radical; the curious crowd that gathers to watch him will soon brand him as extreme, fanatical, and negative…and, in a sense, they are right…for he cannot turn off the burden of the Holy Ghost”

Massa’: a God-given burden…CALL A SACRED ASSEMBLY is my burden

Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting

Matt. 9:14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast . . .

Praying opens the hand of God.

The Word secures the truth in our hearts.

Worship brings down heaven.

Obedience opens the door to God’s blessings.

But fasting is the hardest spiritual discipline – it starves the flesh and fills us with the Spirit. ITs FOCUS is “DENIAL”

The last time we saw fasting it was tied to temptation and spiritual disciplines, but here it’s tied to Mourning.

In essence, “we’re not fasting because we’re celebrating.” BUT..

Anah [aw-naw]: “afflict the soul” – Afflict for the purpose of humbling. Sorrow must match the situation.

Sackcloth and ashes – [feel the pain]

Very healthy to mourn over sin – it turns to joy – feel the pain WE caused.

Hence the need for these types of sermons – “Your words will be like fire and the people like stubble.”

God’s labor & delivery room:

“If the church today had as many agonizers as she has advisers, we would have a revival within a year.” ~ Ravenhill

“We need to close every church in the land for one Sunday and cease listening to a man so we can hear the groan of the Spirit which we in our lush pews have forgotten.”

Why A SACRED ASSEMBLY? 2 Timothy 3:1, But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

​ A disgruntle reader wrote,​ “Those of us who don’t go to his church or believe in his ‘god’ aren’t troubled by his opinions, and we certainly won’t be governed by his bigotry.”

Brutal: Police find seven dead babies in Utah County home. Woman, 39, allegedly gave birth, then killed the infants and put their bodies in a garage.

Lovers of self…of perversion: Our sex-saturated culture will continue to pervert with the ultimate goal of destroying. Ariel Castro, who was exposed in 2013 for kidnapping three women and holding them for ten years, admitted that a deep addiction to pornography fed his perversion. He eventually committed suicide in prison. His idol promised pleasure but brought death and destruction.

Disobedient & Abusive & Treacherous: Florida-a 13-year-old girl and her 15 yr. old boyfriend were charged with attempted murder. The teenagers admitted to investigators that they planned to kill both the girl’s mother and father so that they could continue dating. AND A Minnesota teenager was charged Thursday with 10 attempted murder and explosives counts in a plot to shoot his family to death and then kill himself and “as many students as he could” by blowing up a school.

Blasphemers: The Satanic Temple recently submitted plans for a monument they want placed at the Oklahoma Capitol next to the Ten Commandments. The sculpture will feature a 7-foot-tall goat-headed creature as Satan, which will be flanked by two adoring children smiling as they look up to the creature that will be large enough so that tourists can sit in its lap.

Judgment starts in the house of God…God’s house must break…God’s house must repent…He revives us to revive others.

“The Church must first repent; then the world will break! The Church must first weep; then our altars will be filled with weeping penitents” (Leonard Ravenhill).

The Excuse Church Prevents Revival:

He has a bad temper; BUT mine is just righteous indignation

He is proud; BUT I’m just confident

She is moody; BUT I just have a lot going on

They are contentious; BUT I’m just passionate

They like to argue; BUT I just have convictions

They are greedy; BUT I’m just trying to save my money

He has a problem with porn; BUT I just struggle now and then

THE ANSWER: “CALL A SACRED ASSEMBLY”

The Context of Joel is a startling parallel: they were prosperous but apathetic; they had religion but not a relationship – “they had a form of godliness…”

“God has always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown OF THE PEOPLE.”

The only difference is that prosperity has not been taken from us.

Peace has been consumed from our land; fear is gripping the hearts and minds of many; morality has been ripped from our hands; truth has been rapped and taken advantage of; God has been blasphemed.

THE GREAT DECEPTION: Avoid the O.T. ~ Jesus Quoted It

JOEL 1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel… 2 Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation. 4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. 5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep…6 For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. 7 He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.

Our land has been consumed. Satanic influences, strong and without number, have laid waste to our hearts and minds. Families are being devoured, lives destroyed…truth has fallen in the streets.

THE SOLUTION: 13 Gird yourselves and lament, you [leaders]; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God..14 Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord.

Repeat: 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. 14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him—…15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; 16 Gather the people . . .

Blessings come from Brokenness; Restoration comes from Repentance; Revival comes through mourning, AND Renewal through tears.

It doesn’t matter what we like…it’s what God requires.

THE GOOD NEWS: God’s Spirit Poured Out

Joel 2:28 “And it shall come to pass ..

“If My People humble themselves [afflict, mourn, sorrow over the condition of their land], … pray, seek My face, and turn from wickedness…”